The
Cosmic Story: Spring Equinox 2020
It's time
to choose the uncertain future over the unsustainable past.
The symbolic
interpretation of the Pandemic
Well, we've all been sent
to our rooms without any supper, haven't we?
No NBA or March Madness,
no professional sports, no museums or large gatherings, no Broadway
shows or Vegas conventions. We all have to go home and
'self-distance' from each other.
If we could only shut off
the Internet and phone services as well, we might get to contemplate
our 'sins' in the quiet. And believe it or not, they are many! Just
ask Mother Earth.
Just like Max and the
Wild Things, we are sent to our rooms for our inability to be
responsible for our actions, perhaps feeling we're victims of an
unjust fate.
But perhaps like Max, once
we're alone in our room, our imaginations might open up to us and
help us reflect on how we got here.
Since we're all in this
together, we all helped create this mess together. It's a good time
to look at all your own 'wild things' staring you down and decide how
you want the rest of your life to play out. How do you want to meet
this moment?
People are falling into
fear and then panic due to the media hype. Fear wrecks havoc on our
immune system.
Greek God Pan
The word panic is
derived from the great god, Pan – the god of Nature. Panic occurs
when our very nature rises up in protest to what we are doing. While
it might seem like Nature herself has turned on us, the truth is
Nature hasn't turned on us. She is just trying to heal her own
human-made wounds.
As we all sit in our
homes, afraid to go out or to run out of toilet paper, what better
way to spend our alone time then to try to understand just what we're
really feeling. Just what are we afraid of?
The obvious answer is that
we're afraid of death.
So, we are facing our fear
of death. I always think of Carlo Castaneda's don Juan saying,
“Death is the only wise
adviser that we have.
Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong
and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your
death and ask if that is so. Your
death will tell you that you're wrong; that
nothing really matters outside its
touch.”
I am an advocate of taking
death as my adviser. And this
virus is giving us a chance to do just that.
If we widen the lens of
our perspective, we can see that this pandemic
might be connected to the ecological damage we have done to our
planet. Mother Earth has sent us devastating hurricanes,
volcanoes, earthquakes and floods to let us know that the environment
is being destabilized. Since we're not taking climate change
seriously, we will find ourselves more and more at the mercy of our
environment.
So this is a great
time-out for us, to consider what our life-style has done not only to
Mother Earth, but to all her children. Our wars, our splintered
beliefs, our greed, our narcissism are waiting for us to really see
what modern life has become.
Mother Earth can
self-regulate, but first she has to heal what is wounded. A Virus
like this one is a way She self-corrects. No, it is not God's
punishment for being gay or wanting an abortion. It is the Goddess'
energetic re-balancing of what humans have done to the environment.
This is brought on by our own inability to self-regulate – our
actions, our desires, our intentions, our commerce.
The world has finally
stopped spinning so fast and everything is on hold. This is a game
changer. After this, we all have to decide what we want life to be
like after COVID-19. Do we go back to the same-old, same-old or do
we change the way we've been living and invest the Fed's $1.5
trillion dollars in renewables, infrastructure, the green new deal,
new work accommodations, better education to the future.
If we can imagine it, we
can change our world after this crisis passes.
This is definitely
mirrored in the heavens. As above, so below. As within, so
without. We are all one, held in
Mother Earth's embrace. Hopefully, this crisis will help us remember
that we are supposed to be the stewards of the Earth. That means
creating a sustainable way of life. Which means we have to stop
rampant consumerism, wars and corporate control of life.
Life isn't the economy.
The economy is just one of many facets of life. We've let the
economy consume all the other aspects of what it means to live a
creative, caring life. The symbol of our economy is the stock
market, which in reality is just gambling on which commodity will get
you the most money. Perhaps it's a good thing that the market is
crashing, because it no longer serves life.
Astrology of the Breakdown
Astrology
can point out many factors that led to this crisis. The lineup of
planets in Capricorn, the sign regulating our collective structures –
government, finance, defense, healthcare, education – gives us
insight into this collective breakdown.
Pluto
entered Capricorn in 2008, during the last financial crisis. Pluto
wants to purify the system, to bring up what's no longer viable so it
can be composted into new soil. Instead of fixing our economy, we
threw money at it. Just as the Fed is doing now.
So
Pluto has kept up its relentless examination of all the things no
longer working in our society, trying to purge everything that is
toxic. Hopefully, this time-out will give Americans time to realize
just how toxic our way of life is and how corporations have seduced
us into thinking we need all the junk they manufacture. When in
fact, we don't.
This
is very much about corporate power. Please remember: America was
pretty much founded by the East
Indian Trading Company – a corporation. What do you think the
Boston Tea Party was all about? 'Taxation without representation is
tyranny!' They were paying taxes to the Company with England's
blessing. Isn't that what the American people are doing – paying
taxes while the wealthy and corporations don't? We've been a
corporate state from the beginning, founded at the beginnings of the
Industrial Revolution. So we shouldn't be surprised that our
corporations are running things. It's just time to put an end to it.
America
is having her Pluto return in the next few years in the sign of
Capricorn, another sign that we're a corporate state. We are
experiencing the very end of a 246 year cycle which often heralds the
'end of empire'. So we are living in a similar energy to the time
before the American Revolution. Perhaps we need to connect with
those ancestors who rebelled against that tyranny and ask them for
advice on how to meet this moment. We can do a shamanic journey,
active imagination or meditation on it, since we'll all be home for
the foreseeable future.
Saturn
is the reality principle, the energy of structure and form, and of
taking responsibility for our actions. Cause and effect. Saturn
forces us to face our fear and frustration, fight or flight reactions
and manage them. Saturn has been in Capricorn since 2018, trying to
hold up a crumbling system until this January 12th,
and pushing us to grow up and take responsibility for our actions.
On
January 12, 2020 these two planets met for the first time in
Capricorn since 1517, the year Martin Luther changed the course of
western Europe. It seems we are going through a similar and more
important change. We are seeing the death and rebirth (Pluto) of our
society with new structures (Saturn) emerging. This time, these two
planets are signaling the end of patriarchy and hopefully, runaway
capitalism.
Jupiter
and Mars are both approaching Pluto over the next few weeks, so we're
probably not out of the woods yet. Jupiter expands things and Mars
gets the action moving. This is a good time to be energized by old
myths and new stories, and new hope instead of the story of fear and
panic that the media is dishing out. While you're home, read or
watch movies like 'The Lord of the Rings' and be energized by the
heroic efforts to bring down evil.
It
was during the December-January eclipse season that we became aware
of the coronavirus. The Lunar Nodes are in Cancer/Capricorn. The
Capricorn South Node, which has connected with Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter
and now Mars, has been forcing us to face our karmic debts to
society, to remember them and release them. Many people have been
clearing out ancestral wounds, working to step away from 'the
father's house' and learning to live according to the dictates of our
souls (the North Node in Cancer.)
We
began to learn more about the virus as Mercury retrograded in Pisces,
the sign of the collective unconscious. There are no borders there.
Suddenly, our perceptions of things changed. We're finally seeing
the big picture – Mercury turned direct in the last degrees of
Aquarius, the collective consciousness. And last week's medical
Virgo Full Moon rose opposite the Pisces Sun conjunct Neptune, the
planet of infectious disease and pandemics, opening us up to the
reality of the crisis.
Will
we chose Love or Fear? The heavens are voting for Love and so are
many of us.
The
energy of Love will help us meet the crisis with strength and
courage. We will go through hard times, but if we persevere, we can
also change the dynamic of how the world operates.
What's
important is how we each show up to help create a new story for
ourselves and our world.
This
virus is giving us an opportunity to master ourselves and our gifts
and use them. It affects the lungs, where we take in the Breath
of Life. Inspiration comes from
the Latin inspirare
"blow into, breathe upon," figuratively "inspire,
excite, inflame," from in- "in" (from PIE root *en
"in") + spirare "to breathe".
Perhaps we need to look at what we really believe about life – do
we believe that there is a spiritual power greater than our human
ego? It might be a lack of resilience and spirit that makes the
difference between life or death.
So
breathe deeply, take air into your lungs and keep them flexible. As
we work to fill ourselves with breath and the Light, we can be a
Light to the world. It's our choice.
So
we find ourselves a week away from Spring Equinox 2020, settling into
our homes to live out the last week of winter in self-imposed
isolation. I urge you to use your imaginations and open yourself to
possibilities, rather than close yourself off through fear.
This
is a Blessing from Mother Earth and Spirit.
Spring Equinox
2020
Our
Brave New World is approaching.
This will be a very
interesting Spring Equinox ingress chart, since we've never
experienced such a breakdown in global society before. I especially
love that the Italians are singing out their windows with their
neighbors. Perhaps we need to follow their lead and connect with our
neighbors in new and artful ways.
The Spring Equinox is
considered the beginning of the astrological year. This year I'm
going to use the Washington D.C. Chart rather than a generic 0* Aries
rising chart so I can comment on how Americans can use this time to
our advantage.
Spring Equinox occurs on
March 19, 2020 at 8:50pm PDT/ 11:50pm EDT/ 3:50am GMT.
The Sabian symbol for the
Sun at 1* Aries is: A woman just risen from the sea. A seal is
embracing her. Something new is
arising out of the sea of the collective unconscious. It is feminine
because all new things arise out of the Divine Feminine. It is a new
feeling, a new consciousness, a new instinct for life. The seal is a
symbol of creativity, active imagination and lucid dreaming. This is
because we need to engage our imagination when we are at the
beginning of something new.
The Aries Sun is conjunct
Chiron, the wise mentor and wounded healer, and it squares the
Cancer/Capricorn Nodes, indicating that if we look to the future,
this can be a time to heal old wounds and come into our power. If we
continue to hold onto the old, we'll run into more wounding and
trouble, fear and confusion.
The Aries Sun and Chiron
land in the 6th house of everyday living, health and service. How
can we heal our bodies from the toxins our industrial society has
infected with air, the water and our food with? Can we learn to use
our time during the day creatively? How can our talents serve our
communities? These are questions Americans need to answer if we want
to change our lives and our world.
With the Aries New Moon
following on March 24 conjunct Chiron, the more you give into
unconscious fears and panic, the more you'll restrict yourself and
lose an opportunity for new growth. Chiron initiates us into our
heroic self. This might be the time when we are called to help our
family, our neighbors and the world.
Aries is all about new
beginnings, just as Spring is the season of the rebirth of Nature.
(Down in the southern hemisphere, you are arriving at Autumn Equinox,
a time to look at your harvest.)
Aries are bold explores,
looking for new frontiers to conquer. Ruled by Mars, it is very
action oriented. For this Aries ingress, Mars is in Capricorn
conjunct Jupiter, providing us with confidence and strength and the
ability to deal with whatever comes our way if we use these energies
correctly. Otherwise, it can make us more aggressive (Jupiter
expands things).
When a planet(s) is
squaring the Nodes, we have to work on the issue that planet brings
up before we can get to the North Node destiny. With the
Capricorn/Cancer axis, we can leave behind our patriarchal engendered
fears (Capricorn) if we see ourselves as capable of staying centered
in our soul-needs in the midst of chaos (Cancer).
So with this 'time-out',
let go of the shoulds and oughts of patriarchy and listen to
what you truly love and need. What will make you flourish now? And
how can you help people around you flourish?
Go out into Nature.
Mother Earth is our teacher – She can show us what we need to do.
As we look for purpose, where better than in Nature. We are here to
understand how to live differently, to live sustainably and in
harmony with Nature and her needs. To return to our purpose of being
Mother Earth's stewards. We need to reclaim our place in Nature's
biosphere.
We can combine modern
western consciousness with a simpler lifestyle, not centered around
work and production (they have robots for this) but around creativity
and imagination to make the world better and people more conscious.
We can re-create a good healthy world.
With Sun in Aries, the
impulse is to go out and explore. If you've been obsessing about
what to do, go into Nature and ask her. See what She says to your
life and condition. Believe it.
This Equinox chart has a
balsamic phase Moon in Aquarius. That means this is karmic. We have
to finish up old business.
The Moon symbolizes our
Body Soul, our unconscious needs and desires. In this Equinox chart,
it's in the 4th house of home and family and soul. Since
we're all exiled to our rooms/homes for now, we are being given an
opportunity to tune into the larger picture. Where do we fit into
the cosmic order?
Aquarius energy is about
developing a more detached and cosmic view of life. There are higher
truths to life than scrambling for a paycheck. We need to step away
from the lower desires of our physical selves, which has been
manipulated into consumerism, and turn towards a higher cosmic
consciousness that endorses the belief that we are all free and equal
and that we are in charge of our evolutionary paths. If this
pandemic can teach us that we are one world, one people, perhaps
we'll no longer allow our governments to spend our hard earned cash
on war, greed, domination and authoritarianism. This is the sign of
the Revolutionary, the Eccentric, the Genius. So this is a good year
to discover those qualities within ourselves.
Venus in Taurus squares
this Moon, challenging us to use our senses, go out into Nature and
ground in the cosmic truths the Moon is examining. We don't need
more things. We need to awaken our bodies to the reality of the
world; not only to the toxicity our society has poisoned it with but
also to how beautiful and nurturing to our souls it is.
The Sabian symbol for the
Moon at 14* Aquarius is: A train entering a tunnel. While
there's the obvious sexual symbolism of penetration, it also suggests
a secret passage to another realm. Or an underground bridge that
will take us through something, like the tunnels underwater like in
Boston or New York or through mountains like in Switzerland. This
symbol implies the ability to short-cut the process of natural
evolution by the exercise of will, mental skill and physical
self-discipline. It shortens the length of time needed to progress
by cutting through obstacles in our way.
That certainly feels like
what this pandemic is doing. It is short circuiting our social
structures so we might have the ability to move ahead into a
different future.
Saturn, the ruler of
Capricorn and the Guardian at the Gate who initiates us into our life
lessons, is at the last degree of Capricorn. That means it's at a
culmination point. Can we do the best job of what life is testing us
with? Can we consciously evolve so we actually face the reality of
Climate Change and change the way we live?
The Sabian symbol for
Saturn at 30* Capricorn is: A secret meeting of the people
responsible for executive decisions in world affairs. We
can look at this and think that it refers to a wealthy 'cabal' who
seem to be running the show. Or even the old occult idea of the
'White Lodge'. But in this time when we are called to step forward
and be responsible for our lives, this is a call to each of us to
step up!
With Mars and Jupiter
meeting up hours after the Equinox, the energies will be bigger than
usual, since Jupiter expands things it touches. In Capricorn, this
energy is like the CEO who knows how it to use the tools are her
disposal well. Mars grapples with life, not shying away from what
needs to be done. Jupiter gives him the best tools to work with,
whether the best sword or the best plans. (Where is Elizabeth Warren
and her plans when we need her!)
The Sabian symbol for both
Mars and Jupiter at 23* Capricorn is: A soldier receiving two
awards for bravery in combat.
This symbol implies that whatever we do for ourselves and society
will have double the effect on our lives. So be brave and face this
alone time with creativity and imagination, love and hope, kindness
and compassion.
Since Mars is the
co-ruler of this Scorpio Ascendant along with Pluto, and they are
about to meet up on March 22-23, we can see that whatever is
happening is going to get bigger before it gets better.
The chart's Scorpio ascendant
tells us that we have to explore the mysteries of life and death now.
It's exactly what we need for our planet and our world.
Both Mercury and Neptune
in Pisces occupy the 5th house in the Equinox chart. So
go play, with or without children, be imaginative, create something
and go with the flow!
Check out the link of how Italians are singing in the streets!
So here are some things to
do while we stay home.
Stop being afraid or
worried. They're wasted e-motions (energy in motion) – wasted
energy. Focus on what you're discovering about yourself and the
world and use your energy to explore new possibilities.
Stay in touch with
family and friends, help out neighbors and see what your community
needs in the way of volunteers.
Go out into Nature
and ask Her how you're doing as well as what to do. And enjoy the
beauty of Spring's awakening.
Listen to music that
inspired you in your youth – Or whatever inspires you to be your
truest self. I think the music from the 60s-70s talk to us about
how we need to change. Like George Harrison's Give
Me Love or
Buffalo Springfield's For What It's
Worth (there's something happening here. It just ain't exactly
clear...I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?)
Or Cat
Steven's Peace Train.
Find your own playlist that inspires you to be your best self.
Watch
movies and shows that inspire you like The
Lord of the Rings or
Avatar.
I love 'This Is Us'
– one of the most psychologically astute studies of parenting and
children. And there's a great father figure in it – much better
than 'Father Knows Best'!
Enjoy your solitude
and learn something new – there are a lot of online classes, some
for free!
Do some art. Dance.
Learn to play an instrument. Sing!
Tell your self a new
story.
Read the mythic
stories of heroes and heroines.
Write what you're
doing and share on social media. Pass around your ideas.
We can make something good
of this 'self-distancing'. Let's come out of this 'crisis' better
than we were.
Walk in the Light and
Delight in the Springtime energy,
Cathy
A Swiss friend sent me
this to share.
Lockdown
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is
isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is
sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in
Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds
again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is
no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They
say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each
other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so
that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around
them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering
free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I
know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the
neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call
on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are
preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the
weary
All over the world people are slowing down and
reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their
neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to
a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control
we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray
and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have
to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to
be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not
have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not
have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But
there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you
make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the
factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The
sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always
encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though
you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
-from Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard)
in Ireland
March 13th 2020
